Pages

May 12, 2004

"They first learned about this when the 'courageous' soldier took the pictures to his superiors. And the pictures were all 'personal.'

"But then stories came out that the pictures were ordered by MI for 'intimidation' purposes.

"And the ICRC reported it had told the Admin. about these problems months ago.

"And it was limited to a handful of 'bad apples.' Except the same thing happened in Afghanistan.

"And the photos were staged, not 'snapshots.'

"And they knew something was up in November, but they fixed it. But they were surprised by the allegations in January.

"But no one knew about it. But everyone knew about it, because there was a breakdown in command.

"But there was no breakdown. And the Geneva Convention has always applied.

"Except when it hasn't.

"And we've always followed it. Except when we didn't.

"And we don't abuse prisoners. Except when we do. It's not 'American.' Except it is expressly sanctioned by military regulations. Except it can only be sanctioned by the SoD, because Rumsfeld keeps tight rein on everything.

"Except he doesn't. Because this was authorized in Iraq, not in Washington. Except it couldn't have been, because Rummy runs a tight ship.

"Except he didn't know. But don't call it 'plausible deniability.' Because there's a chain of command.

"Except Rumsfeld doesn't know what it is. He only knows about the PR campaign he's been conducting since these photos went public.